Pulp International - Assorted vintage covers of Male

Feb 11 2010

There’s a thin line between pulp and porn.

The great Hindu writings the Upanishads tell us that in the same way a man begins his life innocent, and in the fullness of time becomes cynical, thus doth the editorial content of a men's adventure magazine begin pure, and slowly evolve into softcore porn. We’re paraphrasing, of course. We were talking yesterday about how Short Stories changed its format in order to try and survive the death of the pulp markets, so today we thought we’d show you an explicit progression. Below is a selection of Male covers that begin in adventure territory in the 1950s, but reach near-porn status by the early ’70s. And thanks to Male, we now know what to do with Pulp Intl. if our traffic drops off.

Male Magazine Short Stories nudity

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1964—Mass Student Arrests in U.S.

In California, Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents' decision to forbid protests on university property.

1968—U.S. Unemployment Hits Low

Unemployment figures are released revealing that the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to 3.3 percent, the lowest rate for almost fifteen years. Going forward all the way to the current day, the figure never reaches this low level again.

1954—Joseph McCarthy Disciplined by Senate

In the United States, after standing idly by during years of communist witch hunts in Hollywood and beyond, the U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for conduct bringing the Senate into dishonor and disrepute. The vote ruined McCarthy's career.

1955—Rosa Parks Sparks Bus Boycott

In the U.S., in Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott resulted in a crippling financial deficit for the Montgomery public transit system, because the city's African-American population were the bulk of the system's ridership.

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Things you'd love to buy but can't anymore